Tag: Ghana

The most help I can do for the preservation and heritage of Elmina castle, Fort Amsterdam, and the other slave castles along of the coast of Ghana is to teach others how they can study and care for the castle tomorrow.

“As a student in the digital media studies department, it amazed me to see how the different tools and methods of studying the structures added to our understanding of how the forts were built and how they might have changed over time.”

“Since arriving at Elmina, my heart has been flooded with sorrowful thoughts that fly back to the colonial period, when elegant pieces of architecture such as Elmina Castle were built to house pillaged materials such as gold and ivory, as well as human beings.”

Engineering student Kate Korslund ’20 finally reaches Elmina Castle, home for the field school she her classmates will be spending their summer learning about the historic importance and preservation of these coastal forts.

Hear from eight Rochester students spending this summer at a field school in Ghana. Led by Professors Renato Perucchio, Michael Jarvis, and Chris Muir, the students are studying the engineering, historical, and cultural aspects of the country’s historic coastal forts.

When we look up at a Dutch vault, stretching our tape measures and talking about the construction, we are standing inside a dungeon. This silent, moldy room once held hundreds of lives stripped of dignity, respect, and humanity. Do we add anything to this gruesome narrative by studying the construction methods of a human trafficking enterprise that sought a 12 percent profit margin? Or are we missing the point? … We are not missing the point. He is blessing our attempts to understand, and to safeguard a structure that without continued interest and stewardship, dies, and no longer tells its somber and important story.